Winds of Change
by Thestormwarrior
Summary: He's always had a strange name. Surely he's not from the clans? Prequel to Broken Diamond.


Two moons into Newleaf, the trees were shedding their flowery foliage to make for the fresh emerald leaves that signified Greenleaf. The weather had changed for the better as well, no longer the crisp coldness of early Newleaf, but a far more pleasant and even warmth that could easily soak into the fur and warm old bones.

He doesn't remember why he's alone. He doesn't remember how he got here. His memories are faint, tinged with an undercurrent of fear and a fight to survive. What he does remember is rather minimal; he had gotten separated from his family somehow- had it been because of a storm or had they abandoned him? - and he had been traveling with someone until recently. There was something about Leafbare, a cough too, and he torn away from his traveling companion as well. A promise to-

He winces at the sharp pain in his head that always accompanies him when he tries to think back. Whatever was buried in his memories was perhaps not worth worrying over. What was worth thinking about was the emptiness.

He wasn't a particularly good hunter, nor was he even adequate because he was entirely self-taught, but the little he managed to get was enough to get by. Not to thrive on by any means and any other cat who passed would have been horrified at their ability to count each and every of his ribs, his fur coarse and brittle from the lack of nutrients. He couldn't even remember the last time he had a full belly and it was a good night if it merely rumbled in protest rather than sent sharp pangs of hunger to remind him of his failure.

Each pawstep brought him further and further away from what might have been his home, some unforeseen force and some unknown desire propelling him forward. A fat rabbit, a plump thing with a twitching little nose, sat in his vision. Tempting him. He licked his lips and dropped into a pose that could be vaguely called a hunter's crouch, shaking from both anticipation and weakness. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered an unusual scent, what smells like a grand multitude of cats, but he overlooks it in hopes of catching his prey.

The rabbit bounds away before he can even get close enough to pounce and his tail droops in defeat. His mind goes fuzzy and his paws fall out from beneath him. The darkness that catches him and brings him into his embrace is comforting. He doesn't even feel himself hit the ground nor does he wake up for quite some time.

"I've never seen…. Who is…" The voices go in and out of clarity as he tries to force himself to awareness. It was unsafe to be captured. It was dangerous to be such an easy target.

"Whoever he is…. Likely already dead…."

"Strange scent… Not from WindClan…"

He finally manages to force one amber eye open, startling the small crowd gathered around him. Four of them; a group of cats scarcely out of kithood.

"Woah!" The cream-colored she-cat jumped back as soon as she noticed his movement. "He's alive!"

"Let's give 'im some space."

The four of them gave him enough space to push himself to his paws and he looked over each of them in turn. Besides the cream colored one, there was another she-cat but this one had a belt of blazing fire. There were also two toms, one a dark-brown with stripes, and the other pure black in shade.

"What are you doing on WindClan territory? And where are you from? I don't believe I've seen you at a Gathering before."

He opened and closed his mouth dully. His mouth was parched and how long had it been since he had last spoken to anyone else?

"My name is Oakpaw," The orange one offered softly, misinterpreting his inability as reluctance. "That is my sister Daypaw. That one's Nightpaw, the striped one's Darkpaw."

"Oh please, it's a kit! Of course he's not going to be at a Gathering you fur-for-brains!"

"Shut it, Darkpaw!"

"Nonetheless, I don't think he's from the Clans?" Daypaw circled him once, looking him over. "I honestly don't think they'd starve a kit."

"Not...a kit." He finally struggled out. "Sev…en moons…."

"He can speak." Nightpaw stated in shock. "Seven moons? You're too small to be that old."

"Are you from ThunderClan?" Darkpaw asked, getting a head shake each time he tried with another clan.

"You really were a loner then?"

Oakpaw pushed her clanmates out of the way to get the young cat to focus on her. "We can't keep calling you 'You'. Do you have a name?"

"Y..es…. It's Ty…phoon…"

"Typhoon?" Her nose scrunched up. "What's that supposed to mean? I've never heard of such a thing. Have any of you?"

"Nope."

"First time hearing it,"

"Maybe it's a kittypet word?"

"Well, uh, 'Typhoon'. You're trespassing on our territory. Normally we'd chase you off but…. I really think you should come with us back to camp."

"Oakpaw, you can't be serious!"

She shot a glare at her sister. "Yes, I am serious. I can't turn a blind eye on a cat in need and you shouldn't either. If you want to be stubborn then fine. I'll take the fall for it if we get in trouble."

"I'll go on ahead to alert the camp." Nightpaw offered.

"I'll tell our mentors that we're cutting the border patrol early, I guess." Daypaw said with reluctance and an eyeroll.

"And I think I should be able to carry you," Darkpaw smiled.

The journey to WindClan camp felt like it was both only a few seconds and an entire lifetime. The cats that they passed looked at them with curiosity but none of them seemed outwardly hostile so Typhoon found himself finding a certain amount of peace. Oakpaw immediately split from his side once they arrived to camp, only to circle back to him with a plump pheasant in her jaws.

"I'm going to bring you to the medicine cat den so you won't be disturbed, okay?"

Typhoon nodded, his mouth watering from the faint scent from the bird Oakpaw was inadvertently teasing him with. To his happiness, she placed it between his paws as soon as they reached their destination- a hollowed out cavern on the far side of the camp.

"Eat up." She said rather plainly. His eyes darted from the bird to her and back to the bird. He greedily started tearing into the meat, tears nearly from his eyes at the succulent taste.

Darkpaw walked over with another cat around their age, a taupe tom with white spots. If he noticed how Typhoon protected his food by bringing it closer to himself or his faint hiss, he had enough tact to not say anything.

"Typhoon, I would like you to meet our medicine cat apprentice, Kestrelpaw."

"It's nice to meet you. Darkpaw told us everything, so don't worry. You are in capable paws between my mentor and myself. He's around here somewhere. I'll introduce the two of you a bit later, okay?"

"Hey Ty- mind if I call you that?- I'm going to speak to Onestar real quick. Okay, bye!"

The dark striped cat quickly disappeared out the mouth of the cave, leaving Kestrelpaw shaking his head.

"There he goes getting ahead of himself."

"Hmm?"

"He didn't even ask you, did he?" A blink, "Of course not. Well, you're about to have to answer an important question for us."

"What?"

"They weren't kidding when they said your voice was scratchy- I'll get you some honey for that in a bit- but uh… I'm probably not the best to be asking this but, 'do you want to join WindClan as an apprentice'?"

* * *

**This is a quick remake of Typhoon's backstory as his character as described in the original Winds of Change is far too different from the Typhoon described in Broken Diamond. Of course this is just a small portion of his story, but I think it's fine if some things are left as a mystery so this is going to be a one-shot.**


End file.
